Culture

  • From Martin Luther King to the Black Panthers

    Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement From the 1950s to the 1980SHenry Hampton and Steve Fayer (eds)Vintage Press, 1995. Published in Australia by Random House. 692 pp., $22.95 Review by Arun Pradhan The history of the

  • 'Nothing was ever given'

    WOLLONGONG — "There is nobody like Fred" is accepted by all progressive movements in the Illawarra. Known as "Dad" to local Kooris and activists — blood brother to the Jerringa people and an honorary life member of the

  • TV gets actively radical

    SYDNEY — FRANK GOMEZ talked to JILL HICKSON, PATTY BIANCO, MARYANN WYLDER and BOB SHORT, members of the community television access group Actively Radical Television (ARTV), about what it is like being involved in community free-to-air television.

  • A new beginning — Czech style

    KolyaOpening on March 27 at Dendy Cinemas Review by Margaret Allan The latest film to come out of the former Czechoslovakia is set in the 1989 "Velvet Revolution", in which the characters play out a charming story of the relationship between a

  • Poem: Cleaning Up Eveleigh Street

    Cleaning Up Eveleigh Street White cirrus above crumbling streetAboriginal mural manifested along brick wallover a train line, locals drinking on their verandas on busted seatsgarbage piled bursting out green bins feeding a moody fire — Zero

  • 1997 Queer Film and Video Festival

    1997 Queer Film and Video FestivalMELBOURNE — The seventh annual Queer Film and Video Festival, running March 14-31, will showcase nearly 100 feature films, documentaries and shorts from Australia, Europe, Asia and North

  • Essential viewing for unionists and environmentalists

    details = Rocking the FoundationsScreened at the Wild Spaces Film Festival in Hobart in February Review by Ben Courtice This film, an old favourite of radical activists, charts the rise of the NSW branch of the Builders Labourers'

  • Putting the gentry in a spin

    The SeagullBy Anton ChekhovTranslated by Oleg Bichenkov, Anatoly Frusin and Neil ArmfieldDirected by Neil ArmfieldBelvoir Street Theatre, Sydney, until April 13 Review by Allen Myers "Unrequited love's a bore", according to the song. Not in

  • A depoliticised, Hollywood flop

    EvitaDirected by Alan ParkerStarring Madonna, Antonio Banderos and Jonathon PriceNow showing in all major cinemas Review by Paul Howes Evita, based on a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, is another Hollywood flop. There is really

  • Better than John for PM

    Ned KellyBy Douglas StewartAdapted by Pam LevershaTheatreworks, St Kilda, until March 22 Review by Graham Moyes "If Ned Kelly was king/ he'd make those robbers swing/ he'd bring them down ..." Thus lamented Midnight Oil circa '81, adding another

  • Political folk from Canada

    March is Australia's folk festival season, when some of the best performers from overseas tour the country. This year, one of Canada's finest young songwriters, James Keelaghan, will be performing at five of the major

  • Wandering in the wilderness

    The Prophet's Children: Travels on the American LeftBy Tim WohlforthHumanities Press, 1994. 330 pp., $26. Review by Adam Hanieh Tim Wohlforth was a key figure in the US Trotskyist movement from the McCarthy years until the '70s. This highly